Murat Çetinkaya, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT), answered the questions of the AA correspondent about the regulation regarding fees, expenses and commissions in commercial transactions.
“Why was there a need to make such an arrangement?” Answering the question, Çetinkaya stated that currently banks receive fees, commissions and expenses from their commercial customers under different names.
Çetinkaya said that they introduced a regulation in this field with a communiqué within the framework of the authority granted to the CBRT by the Council of Ministers Decision No. 2006/11188 and the Law No. 6493 on Payment and Securities Settlement Systems, Payment Services and Electronic Money Institutions.
Emphasizing that these fees collected by banks from their commercial customers are far from comparable, Çetinkaya said:
“We were faced with excessive pricing here from time to time. Upon increasing customer complaints, the need for a regulation in this regard arose. With the regulation we made, the types and qualities, maximum amounts or rates of fees that can be charged for the products or services offered by banks to their commercial customers, and the relevant standards.” “In summary, the main purpose here is to ensure that the fees collected are more transparent, understandable, predictable and comparable.”
“With the communiqué, regulations were made on three basic issues.”
Çetinkaya underlined that it covers the fees to be charged for products and services to be offered to banks, other banks, financial leasing companies, factoring companies and financing companies and all real or legal persons other than financial consumers within the scope of the Regulation on the Procedures and Principles on Fees to be Charged to Financial Consumers.
“What kind of regulations does the Communiqué bring?” Çetinkaya gave the following answer to the question:
“We can say that the communiqué basically made regulations on three issues. First, in the current situation, banks collect fees under a large number of items for commercial transactions. With this communiqué, banks’ commercial customers are informed about ‘Commercial Loans’, ‘Foreign Trade’, ‘Cash Management’. We have limited the fees that can be charged for the products and services they offer in four categories, namely ‘Payment Systems’ and ‘Payment Systems’, to 51 items. The Communiqué includes the fee list for these 51 items. Secondly, we have introduced quantitative or qualitative limitations on some fee items. Thirdly, banks are obliged to inform in order to ensure transparency in pricing. “Banks are now required to announce the maximum tariff and other up-to-date information on all fee items on their websites in a clear, understandable and easily accessible manner.”
Fees that may be charged for products and services
Murat Çetinkaya, “Will banks be able to charge their commercial customers only the fees included in the annex of the circular?” In response to the question, he said that the 51-item fee list in the annex of the communiqué was for the products and services within the scope of the four categories they mentioned.
Stating that they regulate the fees that can be charged for the products and services they will offer within the scope of commercial loans, foreign trade, cash management and payment systems categories, Çetinkaya said, “Banks are not required to pay an additional fee to third parties, other than the fees in the annex of the communiqué, for the products and services offered within the scope of these four categories.” “They will not be able to receive any fee unless this is the case.” he said.
Loan allocation, loan disbursement and early payment fees
“How does the Communiqué regulate issues such as loan allocation, loan disbursement and early payment fees?” Çetinkaya answered the question as follows:
“Banks will be able to collect loan allocation and loan disbursement fees from commercial customers separately. Loan allocation fees cannot exceed twenty-five ten thousandths of the allocated limit. Loan allocation fees cannot exceed 1 percent of the loan disbursed. Regarding the early payment fee, banks may charge one or more of the loans. They will be able to collect an early payment fee if the excess installment payment is made before the due date or the entire loan debt is paid early. In addition, if the commercial customer requests early payment for the entire loan, banks will be obliged to accept this request. In this case, there will also be an early payment fee that can be charged from commercial customers. There is a limitation. Accordingly, the early payment fee that can be charged from commercial customers cannot exceed 1 percent for loans with a remaining maturity of not exceeding 24 months, and 2 percent for loans with a remaining maturity of more than 24 months. The fees that can be charged in case of early payment of commercial loans taken before the notification are also This regulation will apply.”
Money transfer fees
CBRT President Çetinkaya stated that an important limit has been introduced regarding money transfers for the benefit of bank customers.
Pointing out that there are very variable pricing in current transfers depending on the channel or bank, Çetinkaya said, “With the regulation, the fee that can be charged for EFT transactions for transfers of 1000 TL and below will be 1 TL for transactions made through mobile banking applications and internet banking and for regular payments, and for transactions made through ATMs.” It cannot exceed 2 TL, and 5 TL for transactions made through other channels such as call center or branch. If the transaction amount is between 1000 TL and 50 thousand TL, these limits are determined as 2 TL, 5 TL and 10 TL respectively. “If it is over a thousand TL, the maximum fees in question will be applied as 25 TL, 50 TL and 100 TL, respectively.” he said.
Çetinkaya stated that in money transfer transactions, at most, half of the fees determined according to this classification can be applied.
Stating that the regulations included in the notification will come into force as of March 1, 2020, Çetinkaya said, “However, the provisions of the notification will also be valid for the transactions of contracts established before March 1, 2020, to be carried out after this date.” He concluded his words by saying.
Source: https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/ekonomi/merkez-bankasindan-ucret-ve-komsyon-duzenmeleri-aciklamasi/1730659
